Foulline - Views from out of bounds.

Jack splat The New Jersey Nets came into the United...

March 17, 1998|By Steve Rosenbloom.

Jack splat

The New Jersey Nets came into the United Center Monday night having lost six of their seven games in March. A lot of people chalked that up to the injuries to star rookie Keith Van Horn and stud rebounder Jayson Williams.

But the real reason, of course, is that Nets coach John Calipari has six assistant coaches, and one of them--get this--is former Bulls embarrassment Jack Haley. No lie.

Bulls backup center Joe Kleine played for the Nets for about two months last season and was able to regale his new Bulls teammates with silly Haley stories. Like the one about the Bigsby & Kruthers wall that Michael Jordan used to command.

"(Haley) told me he was on the wall--told me he was the wall, all by himself, with this big caption: `What will Jack wear tonight?' " Kleine said. "The way I understood it from him, he was the only thing on the wall."

Well, no, he wasn't. He wasn't even a big part of the wall. He was a dinky part of the east wall, the one that was toughest to see. But no matter. What'd you think when you heard Haley's story?

"I was like, `Why would they put Jack Haley on a wall by himself?' " Kleine said. "I didn't say that to him, but I didn't get it. But when I came here, all the guys explained it to me."

Yep, they explained that Haley and the truth can be passing acquaintances.

"The guys were talking about him," Kleine said. "They told me he was up in the corner--in a little corner--and everybody got (ticked) because he was up in the corner. I said, `Oh, I thought he was on the wall by himself, the way I understood it.' They just laughed.

"He's got a great line of bull. As players, we all do. But he's got one of the best I've ever heard."

Nice to know Haley is talented at something other than giving a flagrant foul.

Just asking

Have any of his law clerks punched NBA arbitrator John Feerick in the nose yet? You know, just to tell the guy he can't fire anybody.

Money talks

Yo, all you Blackhawks fans who think Brett Hull will be here next season to answer your prayers (and threaten to make it worthwhile to spend $75 on a hockey game), get a load of this:

The St. Louis Blues just came at him and Al MacInnins with new contract proposals, with Hull being offered a raise from his $4.2 million salary this year.

So the Blues are trying to lock him up and Hull loves the city. Besides, does anyone really believe that Hawks president Bill Wirtz would pay Hull more than $1 million more than he's paying Chris Chelios?

Coaching-go-round

Now that Michigan is out of the NCAA tournament, a casualty of ineffective coaching against UCLA (it was a matchup zone, guys, a matchup zone) as much as it was a casualty of silly play by Robert Traylor, Wolverines AD Tom Goss is not taking the "interim" off coach Brian Ellerbe.

In fact, co-conspirators say, Goss is expected to contact Seton Hall's Tommy Amaker (late of Duke, not to mention some dancing with Northwestern) and George Washington's Mike Jarvis, along with two other candidates.

Family affair

There's yet another father-son story to go with the Drews and the Harricks in that amazing Midwest Regional in St. Louis. This one involves the Sauers. Pete plays for Stanford, the No. 3 seed that plays Purdue on Friday; his father, Mark, runs the Kiel Center and the St. Louis Blues.

You watch, this will be a story if Stanford needs a basket to advance and somehow the Kiel Center clock doesn't start immediately on inbounding the ball.

Quotable

Conan O'Brien, on the Iditarod: "This year the race was surrounded by controversy because one of the dogs trashed its hotel room and two others tested positive for marijuana."